Elon Musk 'promises' he will build a Tesla pickup truck

During the Tesla semi-truck reveal in November, a brief mention was made of a new Tesla concept pickup truck. Late Tuesday night on Twitter, Elon Musk promised to make a pickup truck, right after the release of Model Y.

We're looking at a timeline of between 2019 and 2020 when the Model Y crossover is supposed to debut, so it gives everyone a rough idea when we can expect a Tesla pickup truck, reports Engadget.

It's unusual for a company to come right out and ask people how they can improve their product, but Elon Musk is an unusual man who is not afraid to listen to people, especially when looking to find out what the public wants in a product or how he can improve that product.

Elon Musk

Elon Musk went on Twitter Tuesday evening to "send a note of deep gratitude to Tesla owners WW for taking a chance on a new company that all experts said would fail." Musk then asked how the company could improve. Tesla followers took the question to heart.

CTV News Canada reports that one of the very first responses to Musk's Tweet came from the Vancouver Seed Bank. They tweeted, "Need an electric Pick up truck please." Musk tweeted back, "I promise that we will make a pickup truck right after Model Y. Have had the core design/engineering elements in my mind for almost 5 years. Am dying to build it."

Pickup truck market is wide open

The image people saw in November was actually a rather large Tesla concept pickup that would have been too big and wide to drive legally on U.S. roads, and Musk stated that it would be a pickup truck that could carry a pickup truck in its back cargo bed. Was he joking? Perhaps.

2015 Ford F-150.

Flikr

But the truth of the matter is that, according to Seeking Alpha, the Ford F series of pickup trucks are the largest selling vehicle of any kind in the world. The F series are light- and medium-duty trucks that have been marketed and manufactured by Ford Motor Company since 1948.

Ford Motor Company introduced its 13th generation Ford F series in 2015. In 2016, 820,799 F series trucks were sold in the U.S. and 145,409 F series were sold in Canada, with worldwide sales hitting the 2.7 million mark. Assuming an average sticker price of $35,000, this would make the market worth about $100 billion.

It will be interesting to see how Tesla tackles the need for a wider battery range in a pickup. Afterall, pickups go where most cars don't travel, like into the woods and on large farm plots. There aren't many charging stations to be found in those areas. And there is room for other innovations more applicable to trucks than cars, so it is something to look forward to seeing.